In restaurants and other eating places which serve Italian food, the spaghetti and other pasta is customarily cooked in bulk in large cooking vessels and individual portions of the pasta are dished out as orders for it are received. Only the first customers receive freshly cooked pasta. Later customers receive pasta which has become limp and soggy and is correspondingly unappetizing.
A modified procedure is to precook the spaghetti or other pasta in bulk and then keep it in cold water or in a refrigerator until it is needed. Individual portions of the pasta are then reheated and served. While this is some improvement over keeping the pasta hot in a large cooking vessel, the precooked, stored and reheated pasta does not have the appearance or taste of pasta that is freshly cooked.